Category Archive: Politics

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Egyptian women shout political slogans during a demonstration to mark International Women’s Day in Cairo on March 8, 2012. Hundreds of women marched through the Egyptian capital demanding the right to co-draft the country’s new constitution. (Getty Images)

Here is what Fareed Zakaria had to say:

I think that overall the Arab Spring will be good for women. In the short run, however, the Arab Spring has opened the lid on a Pandora’s Box of problems, which have existed for decades, and are now being aired. Reactionary, illiberal forces that have been suppressed and repressed are coming to the fore. But I don’t think these forces will determine where the countries of the Arab Spring end up.

Take a look at a very rural, tribal society like Afghanistan, which does not have progressive attitudes toward women. Nevertheless, the Taliban’s imposition of reactionary policies on women was very unpopular. Most men didn’t like it; most women didn’t like it.

Over time, Arab societies will find a way to accommodate new expressions of Islam with democracy and women’s empowerment. It’s not going to be on our time schedule, however. That’s the thing we really have to understand.

I was talking to Liberian peace activist and Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee about confronting female genital mutilation in Africa. She argued that you have to work on changing the culture slowly. Change is not going to happen because Hillary Clinton makes a speech about it. These are deep-rooted practices.

Now, they are abhorrent practices and I would love to wave a magic wand and get rid of them, but we have to recognize that if we want these changes to be incorporated into the tradition of the country, we have to work on education and modernizing from the ground up. It’s frustrating but that’s the reality and that will be the reality for women’s rights in the Arab world.

It can’t be something that happens because it is decreed from on high – and certainly not from Washington. It is going to happen as these societies gradually modernize, which is happening, albeit more slowly than we would like.

Hitler made the majority people in Germany believe all their financial problems was at the fault of the Jewish people.

Newt Gingrinch wants Americans to believe their financial problems come from giving away too much food stamp instead of paying attention to the US governments corruption and how they have been embezzling our tax dollars for decades.

Watch this video to see my point:

How is it possible that the people are applauding? Is that how much hate they have in them? Are non of them Christian?

What will happen if he takes office? Do you sincerely believe our country would be headed in the right direction? I personally believe we’d become a circus. Please comment.

Afghan police: Man kills wife for giving birth to daughter instead of son

By Nematullah Sarfraz, for CNN

updated 9:02 AM EST, Tue January 31, 2012

Kunduz, Afghanistan (CNN) –

Police in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz are looking for a man they say strangled his wife after she bore him a third child that was not a son.

Sher Mohammed, 29, married his 22-year-old wife, Storay, four years ago, police said.

The couple had three daughters, the last of whom was born three months ago, said Khanabad district police chief Sufi Habib.

After the youngest daughter was born, Mohammed blamed his wife for not being able to deliver a boy, Habib said. ”Finally on Saturday, the man, with the help of his mother, first beat the woman and then strangled her to death,” the police chief said.

New York City Workers Deserve Paid Sick Days

1.5 million New Yorkers face a terrible dilemma when they or their child become ill. That’s because they have no paid sick days.

Your 2-year-old wakes up with 104 degree fever and trouble breathing. You are due at work at 9 a.m. but you know you must get your child to the doctor or an emergency room immediately. What do you do?

For the fortunate among us, there isn’t any question.

You call your employer, explain the situation and take your child to the doctor, or you call your employer and say you’ll be in as soon as you recover from your stomach flu.

But for about one and a half million working New Yorkers–and 40 million workers nationwide–the choice is not so easy, because they do not have a single hour of paid sick time to use when they or a family member is sick.

The burden falls especially hard on low-income working moms, who often work in job sectors with the least paid sick time–retail and food service.

It has been three years since we applauded Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” during the 2008 presidential campaign. However, there has been little progress for women inWashingtonto celebrate since then. In fact, the current statistics on women’s representation in theU.S.government are pretty shocking: while women make up almost 51% of theU.S.population, they are only about 17% of Congress. TheUnited Statesranks 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures, behind countries such asCuba,China,IraqandAfghanistan. Heading into the 2012 election, there seems to not only be an absence of female leadership, but some discouraging trends, like that 17% – last year, for the first time in 30 years, the percentage of women in the House of Representatives actually went down.

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to some pioneering and influential women – political leaders, business executives, publishers and thinkers – and I asked them why they believe women have made such little momentum inWashingtonjust four years after having a near presidential contender – and what we can do to get more women into the pipeline of political leadership.

“As I’ve said before, you can lose the election but win the campaign, because even by running you’ve asserted your strength and authority. In her historic run for president, Hillary Clinton certainly helped crack what I like to call the ‘marble ceiling,’ which has largely kept women from the halls of power for hundreds of years.

The Thai parliament elected the nation’s first female prime minister Friday, with more than half the lawmakers backing her vote.

Yingluck Shinawatra has to be proclaimed by the nation’s king before she can officially take office. If King Bhumibol Adulyadej proclaims her, she will be the 28th prime minister in Thai history.

Yingluck won 296 votes in the nearly 500-member parliament.

“The first thing I want to do is help people on their economic situation,” she said last month.

Yingluck is the younger sister of one of Thailand’s most polarizing political figures, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.

He left the country two years later after being convicted on conflict of interest charges — accusations he denies.

Yingluck’s critics worry she will do her brother’s bidding — something she has denied.

“There is a lot more hard work to do in the future for the well-being of our sisters and brothers, the people of Thailand,” she said last month. “There are many things to accomplish to make reconciliation possible, paving the way for a solid foundation for a flourishing nation.”

Tensions between the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party, which reflect deep divisions within Thai society, erupted last year, leading to a military crackdown. More than 90 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

After the riots, the Thai government pledged to work toward national reconciliation to heal class and political divisions, though the divide between the two groups remains wide.